Virgin Mobile this morning announced the ZTE Supreme, a 5-inch smartphone running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. It's running for $299 on Virgin's no-contract plans, which start at $35 a month.
In addition to the 1280x720 display, the Supreme sports a 13-megapixel rear camera and is powered by a 2,500 mAh battery. It also comes preloaded with Real Racing 3.
Forget full HD and thin bezels, the displays our friends at Mobile Geeks saw during their recent trip to Taiwan blow anything you see now out of the water. Flexible, ultrathin, and with a pixel count double anything you’re looking at now. They also have deep viewing angles and colors that pop off the screen, leaving us wishing we’d see these in-hand sooner rather than later.
The video below highlights the displays at the AUO booth at Touch Taiwan earlier this week. The trade show, which (as you might imagine) centers around display technology, is in the heart of manufacturing country. Taiwan is the epicenter for both OEM and parts manufacturing, and the show definitely brings out the absolute best display technology imaginable.
AUO notes they don’t currently have customers for these displays, but that’s what trade shows are for. With technology like theirs, in a place like Taiwan, we can’t think it would be long until we start seeing them on real-world devices.
Mobile boss JK Shin confirmed that some Samsung smartphones coming next year would be powered by 64-bit processors, though that shouldn’t surprise anyone.
The new iPhone 5s features a 64-bit processor, which is impressive, but it will be years until the jump to the new architecture proves truly useful. Yes, the 64-bit A7 chip is a good early start in the next growth cycle and is generally faster that previous 32-bit chips, but the main benefit of having a 64-bit chip on the iPhone – having more than 4GB of RAM – will not come into effect for years.
Of course, drab reality shouldn’t get in the way of good marketing, which is why I can’t blame Apple for touting the virtues of the first ever “desktop-class” 64-bit mobile processor. And, because Apple now has a perceived advantage in this area (at least in the eyes of less tech savvy customers), I expect marketers in the Android camp to eagerly jump on the 64-bit bandwagon in the close future.
Samsung is the first: co-CEO JK Shin told the Korea Times that the world’s largest smartphone maker would release the first devices running on a 64-bit chip next year:
Not in the shortest time. But yes, our next smartphones will have 64-bit processing functionality. JK Shin
While from Shin’s statement, it may seem that Samsung is living up to its fast follower reputation, truth is the move to 64-bit architecture in 2014 has been planned for years and is in no way sudden nor surprising.
ARM released the 64-bit ARMv8 architecture in late 2011, and the British chip designer outlined itsroadmap for the 64-bit A50 chips due in 2014 just days ahead of Apple’s event. In this context, the fact that Samsung, and other ARM licensees, will have 64-bit chips next year is not really newsworthy.
SAMSUNG WILL PROBABLY OFFER A DEVICE WITH 4GB OF RAM IN 2014
There’s a big difference between Apple and Samsung, though. The Korean company already has devices with 3GB of RAM – the Note 3 and the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition – and is expected to offer a phone with 4GB of RAM sometime in 2014.
In other words, for Samsung, moving to 64-bit will have a substantial effect much sooner than in the case of Apple, which still uses 1GB of RAM on the iPhone.
Now for the big question – which Samsung device will be the first to feature a 64-bit chip? That depends on Google’s plans for 64-bit support in Android: 4.4 KitKat may or may not be the first version to support it.
That aside, analyzing Samsung’s cycles in both mobile devices and components, it seems likely that the first phone with a 64-bit processor will be the Galaxy Note 4. In my opinion, Samsung will stick with a 32-bit processor for the Galaxy S5, which is what JK Shin seems to imply when he says “not in the shortest time”
According to new data released by the International Data Corporation (IDC), the number of tablets to be shipped during the last quarter of this year will exceed the total number of PCs (desktops plus laptops) shipping in the same period. But this doesn’t mean that more tablets are being sold then PCs, not yet. At the moment the predicted Q4 2013 tablets shipments are a bump in the road, a significant bump, but a bump none-the-less. It is estimated that total PC sales for the year will still exceed those of tablets, but tablets are catching up fast and by 2015 tablet shipments will overtake PC shipments.
Smartphones are continuing to sell in high volumes and IDC calculate that 1.4 billion handsets will be sold during 2015. Taking PCs (including laptops and notebooks), smartphones and tablets as a whole, smartphones account for around 69 percent of shipments worldwide while tablets account for around 14 percent. The remaining 17 percent are PCs. However over the next few years tablet market share is expected to increase while PC sales decrease. Smartphone market share is expected to remain constant but the actual number of devices sold will increase as the market size increases.
What is interesting is that the research shows that the key to further success in the tablet market will be lower-priced devices. The IDC forecasts that lower-cost devices will boost overall tablet sales and could also spark interest in new sectors like education. However the popularity of smartphones with screens over 5 inches could eat away at tablet sales as consumers choose to use one device, a 5+ inch smartphone, rather than a smaller smartphone plus a tablet.
What about you? If you had the money to buy either a laptop or a tablet, which would you get?
The NVIDIA Tegra 4 chipset has had some trouble catching on. While the Tegra 4 is snappy, OEMs are favoring the likes of Qualcomm, or making their own chipsets. Intel also looms on the horizon, and recent benchmarking shows their new 22nm chips are primed to keep pace with the Tegra 4.
In Geekbench testing, the Intel Baytrail T chips (byt_t) were nearly identical to the Tegra 4 in single and multi-core scoring. Both ran a variant of Android 4.2 — 4.2.2 for the Intel chip, 4.2.1 for NVIDIA — and similar amounts of memory. The Baytrail T was clocked at an impressive 2.39GHz, whereas the Tegra 4 was checked at a respectable 1.9GHz.
Perhaps the real turning point was multi-core floating point operation, where the Intel chip simply blew the Tegra 4 away. When it came to single-core operation, the Tegra took the edge, but only slightly. The Baytrail chip also outclassed the Tegra 4 in memory processing.
Sony Mobile says that it has started rolling out the maintenance release for Xperia S, Xperia SL & Xperia acro S smartphones to fix some bugs.
After making Android JB 4.1 available for these smartphones, the company received feedback on a few issues within the build, which they say they have now fixed, and also made a few other improvements.
As usual, timing & availability of the updates may vary by market & mobile network operator.
Putting an end to another series of rumors, Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy Note 3. As the name would imply, this marks the third-generation for the phablet and this time around we are seeing the continued support for the S Pen as well as goodies such as a 5.7-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display and quad-core processor. And just as the leaks and rumors were suggesting, that processor will vary by market.
The Note 3 will arrive running Android 4.3 and just like they increased the size of the display — the also upped some of the other specs. The Note 3 will have 3GB of RAM, a 3200 mAh battery, up to 64GB of internal storage and a 13 megapixel rear-facing camera. While much of the specs have been bumped and the display is larger, Samsung managed to have the Note 3 come in a bit slimmer and lighter (as compared to the Note II).
The Galaxy Note 3 measures in at 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3 mm with a weight of 168 grams. The back cover is still able to be removed, which means the battery is still able to be swapped out if needed, however those moving from the Note II to the Note 3 will notice a difference on the backside. Samsung has added a leather-textured, soft-touch back panel. This leather back cover does make the handset a bit easier to keep tight in hand and otherwise the Note 3 is outlined with metal-finish edges.
Shifting back to the front of the device and that display is one that has a resolution of 1920 x 1080. Again, the display measures in at 5.7-inches. Overall the display has good viewing angles as well as great colors and strong brightness levels. In addition to the 13 megapixel camera on the back, that one brings an LED flash and the ability to capture 1080p video. The Note 3 also has a 2 megapixel front-facing camera.
As far as the connectivity goes, those looking towards the Note 3 will find LTE (Cat 4; up to 150/50Mbps down/up) with support for up to six different bands for the various markets the handset will be available. There will also be HSPA (up to 42Mbs) along with WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.0 LE. Other items here include NFC, an infrared blaster and a variety of sensors to include accelerometer, digital compass, gyroscope, proximity, barometer, temperature and humidity.
The storage options go up to 64GB with stops at 16GB and 32GB. The handset will also have a microSD card slot for anything additional. Aside from the changes in the hardware, perhaps one of the bigger points here comes in with the S Pen. The Note 3 will have a palette of options (called Air Command) that opens when you remove the S Pen from the slot or when you hover and click on the pen’s side button.
The S Pen options in that palette include Action Memo, Scrapbook, Screen Write, S Finder and Pen Window. Samsung also made some improvements to S Note and Multi Window and the handset will arrive with support for Samsung KNOX and Find My Mobile. Some other software related goodies include My Magazine which is similar to Flipboard and an improved Group Play.
Shifting away from the device and we find a new windowed case that has a rather large opening on the front. This gives access to the touchscreen and allows the user to see notifications, browse the calendar, run apps and more. This case will be available in a variety of colors and with interchangeable back panels. There will also be some without the front window opening.
Finally, Samsung has said the Galaxy Note 3 will be coming to more than 140 countries. Availability will begin from September 25th and the US release is expected “later this year” with carriers to include Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and US Cellular. And as one would expect, the price has yet to be revealed.
According to new data released by the International Data Corporation (IDC), the number of tablets to be shipped during the last quarter of this year will exceed the total number of PCs (desktops plus laptops) shipping in the same period. But this doesn’t mean that more tablets are being sold then PCs, not yet. At the moment the predicted Q4 2013 tablets shipments are a bump in the road, a significant bump, but a bump none-the-less. It is estimated that total PC sales for the year will still exceed those of tablets, but tablets are catching up fast and by 2015 tablet shipments will overtake PC shipments.
